Type-writer attachment.



PATENTED NOV. 20, 1906.

J. A. RUFPIN.

TYPE WRITER ATTACHMENT. I

APPLICATION FILED DBO. 30. 1904.

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No. 836,143. PATENTED NOV. 20, 1906. J. A. RUFFIN.

TYPE WRITER ATTACHMENT.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 30. 1904.

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J. A. RUPPIN.

TYPE WRITER ATTACHMENT.

APPLIOATION FILED DEC. 30- 1904.

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UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE.

JOHN ANDERSON RUFFIN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.-, ASSIGNOR TO THE HAMMOND TYPEWRITER COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

TYPE-WRITER ATTACHMENT.

naeeams.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 20, 1906.

Application filed flflfl fl 30, 1904. Serial No. 288.968.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN ANDERSON RUF- FIN,'3. citizen'of theUnited States, residing at New York, N Y., have invented certain My invention is an attachment for typewriters, and particularly for that class of machines-known as the Hammond.

The attachment is designed to adapt the machine for printing tagsfor instance, such as are used in railroad-offices for checking up the cars of the, road. The tags are arranged in rolls united together, and one of these rolls is received by the attachment and is fed to the 1printing mechanism, and after the rinting as been placed upon the tag the said tag is severed from the strip composing the roll andis deposited infa'suitable receptacle for use in checking up thecars.

My attachment includes means for holding and feeding the strip of tags, so that the rinting may be placed thereon, and means or severing automatically the printed tag from the strip.-

The invention includes, further, the features and combination and arrangement of parts heremafter described, and particularly pointed out in the claims.

' In the accompanying drawings, Figure .1 is a side view of so much of the Hammondtypewriter as is necessary to a clear understanding of m invention, which is shown as attached t ereto. Fig. 2 is a plan view of a Hammond type-writer with parts in section and some of the parts omitted. Fig. 3 is a rear View ofthe machine with the attach- 'nent applied. Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the attachment looking from the left of Fig. 3. Fig. .5 is a detail View of feed mechanism associated with the attachment. Fig. 6 is a detail view of the detent'ratchet-wheel and its detent for holding the feed-rolls against backward movement or overthrow when moved by their operating mechanism.

My improvements relate more particu larly to the carriage and feed mechanism of the type-writer; and my objects are to provide anjattachment that ma be fitted to the ordinary .carriage and fee of the typ e writer and to provide an attachment that may be fitted to the ordinew line. mechamsm.

nary carriage now in use of the Hammond typewriter, though if the machine is built especially for the printing of tags the carriage ,may be altered n certain minor particulars from the ordinary form, as will be noted hereinaften. v

In the drawin s, 1 indicates the typewriter carriage, w ich is of substantially the frames 2, with a rack-bar 3 extending between them, andalso an upper bar or plate 4. Upon this up er bar or erasing-plate I support the attachment, which comprises a ordina'ry form. This carriage .has end frame consisting of a base-plate 5, screwed to" the erasin -plate and having upwardlycxtending si es or standards 6 connected therewith. These standards at their upper ends have bearings or sockets 7 to receive the,

journals of a suppl roll 8, consisting of a strip of the tags in t e form of a roll. From this roll the strip of ta s passes downwardly between a pair of fee -'rolls 9 10. One of these rolls 9 is journaled in fixed bearings in the standard 6, and the other roll has its bearings in arms 11, extending from a shaft 12, 'journaled in the standards 6 and under tension of a spring 13, tending to force the roll 10 into feecling contact wlth the roll 9'. The roll 9 has a detent-wheel 14, acted on by a detent 15, which arrests the feed-roll at in-' tervals, so that the tag-stri will be advanced a ratchet-wheel 1.8, fixed to the roll-shaft, the

said ear-wheel 16 being operated through a rackar 19, sliding in a guideway 20 of the base-plate 5 and having a roller 21 arranged to ride u ona cam-track 22 when the carriage is pus ed from left to right for beginning a This cam-trac is arranged in fixed relation to the printing mechanism and is supported u on a standard 23, which in turn is supporte upon the fixed cover-plate 24 of the shuttle, (indicated generally at 27,) sothat the tag will lie between the said shuttle and the hammer, (indicated generally at 28.)

The guide-plates 25 are shown partly in dotted lines in Fig. 1, extending down from a point immediately below the rolls 9 and 10 to a oint just above the plane of the shuttle and ammer. After the feeding action has taken place the printing may be proceeded with as in ordinary ractice, and after the tag is printed the ba ance of the movement of the carriage towardthe left may be utilized for automatically severing the printed tag from the'tag-strip. For this urpose I employ a cutting-knife 29, whic ,is s u ported uponthe frame adjacent one of t e ribbonspools, as at 30, Fig. 1, the piece of which the knife'is formed extending under the ribbon-s 001, then u wardly,- as at 31, and rearwar ly, its rear e ge being sharpened to provide the cutting edge, as at 32. This cutting edge lies in a plane just above the plane of the shuttle and across the path of the tag-strip as it is carried toward the left by the movement of the carriage.

After the tag is printed it is simply necessary to release the carriage from its escapement mechanismand allow it to move freely toward the left under the action of its spring, which will bring thetag a ainst the knife and cause it to be'sheared off y the action of the same. As will be seen in Fig. 1, the knife is located just belowthe horizontal plane along which the lower edges of guide- 'lates 25 move, so that the shearing action the knife .takes place close against the lower edges of these plates.

In orderto release the carriageafter the printing has been clone for the cutting-off action, I prefer to employ a releasing-lever the key of whichis indicated at 33. The lever is pivoted at 34, and its rear end extends beneath one end of a lever 35,- which is pivoted at 36 to a suitable standard and with its other end overlies thereleasingsleeve 37 of ,the escapement mechanism,

which sleeve in its action and arrangement is the same as that well known in the Hammond typewriter and needs-no particular description herein further than to say that when this sleeve is moved toward the rear it causes the release of the carriage from the escapement mechanism and places the said carriage entirely under the influence of the carriage-spring so that it Will'move forcibly toward the left.',

In order to cause the lever 35 to operate the release-sleeve, said lever is formed with an incline at its end to engage a part of the' release-sleeve and have a camming action thereon. The lever 35 is returned to normal position by the spring 38.

It '11 be noticed that the attachment is much shorter than the length of the carriage,

and thus there is considerable movement to the carriage after the line of printing has been placedupon thetag, and this excessive movement of the carriage is utilized for the cutting off of the printed tag) The machine as a ed to print upon the lower edge of'the tag; but in some cases it may be desired to place additional lines of printing upon thetag, and I have therefore .provided means whereby the tag-strip may be fed downwardly, so that the first line printed will be near the top thereof, and then the tag-strip may be fed upwardly, so that'the whole surface of the tag may be covered by printing, as desired, and then this may be severed from the tagstrip, and the said strip will thenbe fed downwardly an amount sufficient to bring the next tag with its up er ortion opposite the printing-point, so that y then feeding this tag u wardly step bystgp its whole surface ma eprintedupon. or this purpose the fee ing action of the rolls 9 and is made'to exceed that described above, so that the tag will be fed downwardly until its upper portion is opposite the printing-point, and then by operating a finger-lever, such as is shown in Fig. 5 at 40, the tag-strip may-be raised step 'by step. This-'finger-lever is as sociated with a awl 41 and a ratchet 42', well known-0n t fie Hammondt e-wr-iter, and. acting in a manner similar to t at on existing machines, to feed the paper upwardl step by step] The detent-ratchet 14, with the detent 15, is arranged similarly to that above described, the only difference being that the detent wheel' has a larger number of notches therein-for a smaller spacing action of thefeed-rolls in feeding the tag-strip upwardly. This detent-ratchet 14: andits detent are brought into use to determine accurately the ositionsof the tag-strip when movedupwar ly by hand by. means of the finger-lever, and the action of this detent mechanism is substantially the same in all respects to, that occurring on the ordinary -Hammond type-writer when the feed-rolls are operated by the finger-lever at the lefthand end of the carriage, the detent-rolls and detent on the ordinar machine being located onthe right-hail end of the carriage. In the resent case when the tag-strip is moved ownwardly by means of the automatic mechanism the. detent 15 will allow.

love described is adapt- IIO the detent-wheel 14 to turn-sufliciently for this automatic action, the said-detent IldlIlg over the teeth until the full automatic action that the whole su ace thereof may be covered. l v

The detent 15 and the detent ratchetwheel are shown in Fig. 6, and, as above indicated, the function of this detent is to hold the feed-rolls accurately in position. when moved either by the automatic mechanism or the hand-operating mechanism of Fig. 5, its function being the same as that in the ordinary Hammond typewriter, in that it aids in positioning the rolls accurately when moved, bypreventing overthrow or any tendency toward backward movement.

The finger-wheel 41 (shownin Fig. 3) for operating the feed-rolls bv hand may in my improved arrangement (shown in Fig. 5) be placed at the op osite end of the feed-roll 9 to that upon w cated.

The action of the knifein this form of the invention is precisely the same as that above described, the upward feeding action of the finger-lever bringing the art of the tagstrip to be severed into the p ane of the .knife at t e same time that it brings the lower -por tion of the said tag-strip into the printmg' plane.

I ma make the cam 22 adjustable, so as to get ifi'erent .degrees of movement of the rack-bar 19 for imparting different amounts of feed to the tag-strip, and for this purpose the standard 23 may be adjustably held to the cover-plate 24, so that by loosening the nut 43 the standard 23 may be turned and set in different positions, and a spring-pin 44, engaging recesses in the cover-plate 24, may determine the accurate adjustment of the standard 23 for different amounts of feed.

When the machine is built particiilarly for use in printing and cutting' tags, I prefer to employ a plate 45,.set' in inclined position in the carriage, so as to direct the out tags toward the rear.- Instead of this, however, I may employaguide 46 to receive the tags after'leavmg the knife, one tag being pushed out from said guideway as another tag enters it. This guideway is screwed to the knifebar at 47.

In. order to cushion the 'movement of the carriage, I provide a dash-pot or buffer de-.

vice consisting of a cylinder 48, supported on the carriage and-having a piston 49 therein borne upon by a spring 50, the said pistonrod extending ,from the head of the cylinder and arranged to strike'upon a stop 51 on the frame of t e machine. I

I prefer to employ a tag-strip which is oh the finger-lever 10- scored, so that the tags may be readily severed by the action of the knife. These tagstrips are of known form and are provided with a series of perforations, one for each tag, so that when the tags are printed and severed they may be placed upon a suitable hook or holding device by means of the perforations. I

As regards the shuttle and hammer in their relation to each other and to the carriage, reference is made to the w ell-known Hammond machine, such as illustrated in Patent No. 290,419, dated December 18, 1883.

It will be understood by reference to Figs. 2 and 3 that the knife 29 is located to one side of the printing-point,v and the tag-is of such a len th that it may receive the print= ing throu out its width before its left-hand edge'reac es the severin -knife. This will be clear by reference to. ig. 2, wherein the rolls 9 and .10 are shown ofa length approxi mately equal to the width of the tag. After the tag has-(passed the printing-point and it has receive the printing, the carriage, together' with the rolls 9 and 10, will move to- -ward the left, Fig. 2, and as the knife operates close to the lower edges of the guideplates 25 the said knife will shear off the tag which has just been printed from the strip.

I claim- 1. In combination in a type-writer, printing mechanism, means for feeding a strip of the material vertically to the printing mechanism and means for automatically severing the printed portions of the said strip from the main portion,said means comprising aknife and a paper-carriage which in its longitudinal movement .carrles the paper against the knife, substantially as described.

2. In combination in a type-writer, print ing mechanism, a carriage, feed mechanism for feeding a strip of material to the printingpoint and a cutting-knife arranged to sever movement carryin the strip of material against the knife to e severed thereby 3. In combination in a'typewriter, printing mechanism, means for feeding a strip of material to the printing mechanism, a car ria e carrying the said feed means, a knife an releasing means for the carriage to allow the same under the impulse of'its spring to carry the strip against the knife to be severed thereby, substantially as described.

4. In combination, in a type-writer with printing mechanism, a carriage, feed means the said material, the said carriage in its thereon for feedinga sheet or strip of paper.

IncombinatiQn with printing .Inechan isrn, a carriage,- feed mechanism, a cutting- V deserlbed.

6. In combination, piinting mechanism, a carriage, feed-rolls, a rack movin transversely of the carriage, connections etween the rack and the feed-rolls for operating the same and a cam or track fixed on the frame for operating the rack, substantially as described; .7. In combination, in a type-writer, printing mechanism compiising a hammer and a I shuttle, feed-rolls, means for operat' the same to feed the paper downwardly an in a vertical planebetween the shuttle and the hammer, said means operating automatically 'by'the movement ofthe carriage, and manually-operated means for feeding the paper upwardly between said hammer-and shuttle, substantially as described.

8; In combination, printing mechanism, a carriage having feed-rolls, automatically-operating meansfor feeding the paper downwardly, manually-operating means for feeding the paper or strip upwardly, and means for severing the'said paper strip, substantially as described. I

. 9. In combination,-printing mechanism, a

I carriage, guides for directing the paper'to the printing-point, feed-rolls, and a knife cooperating with the guides to shear the paper,

said-carriage on its movement carrying the paper against the knife, substantially as described. I

I n testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

Rosoon K. INGALLS, CHAS. M. KEI'M. I 

